The Lowlife (Faber Editions) introduced by Iain Sinclair

<p><b>One Londoner gambles on his own life in this lost classic by 'one of the great English Jewish novelists' (<i>Times</i>), introduced by Iain Sinclair.</b><br><br>'Terrific. Propulsive, funny and touching.'<b> Sebastian Faulks</b><br>'A fascinating snapshot of a lost London world, by a remarkable neglected writer.'<b> Sarah Waters</b><br>A wonderfully enduring novel . . . A great rediscovery.' <b>William Boyd</b><br>'Perfect . . . Captures London in all its grime and glory.' <b>Benjamin Myers</b><br><br><i><b>Never give up hope before the dogs have crossed the finishing-line.</b></i><br><br>Harryboy Boas is a lowlife gambler. When he's not at the track, he lives in a Hackney boarding house, reading Zola, eating salt beef, pressing trousers and repressing wartime memories. But when a new family moves into the apartment downstairs, his life starts to unravel and Harryboy soon finds himself sinking into a murky East End underworld where violence, guilt and gangsters are the inevitable result for those who cannot pay their dues.<br><br>A celebrated cult classic, <i>The Lowlife </i>brilliantly evokes post-war East London - dog tracks, sandwich shops, tenements, sex workers, newly arrived West Indians and Jews leaving for Finchley - all seen through the tragicomic eyes of Harryboy, our picaresque rogue hero suffering from 'existential burn-out in the shadow of the Holocaust' (Iain Sinclair) and driven to bet, brag and beg to survive.<br><br><b>‘The greatest British novelist of the last war and among the finest, most underrated, of the postwar period.’ <i>Guardian</i></b></p>